Man or Machine
by Thegr8tn8t
Summary: They all woke up in pairs at different places in the Universe with no memory, only basic survival instincts, yet they are all connected. But how? What are these strange visions they all have? Who are the people in these visions? And why are they having them? And why can't they remember anything but names? - Several OCs. Rated T to be safe
1. Prologue

Prologue

"Sier Hou!" shouted a prison guard into the mess hall. No one came forward. "Sier Hou, you've got a visitor!" He shouted again. That time a male Gossam stood up and walked over to where the guard stood.

"I am Sier Hou." The Gossam said in Basic, presenting his ID chip to be scanned. He was short, standing at around 4'6", and had wrinkly, gray-blue skin and short brown hair. He had three fingers on each hand, which was normal for Gossams, and long, skinny legs. He wore the customary orange prison suit.

"Follow me." The guard said after confirming Sier's ID. They walked down a long hall that led to the visiting area. Sier wondered who would be visiting him this late in his sentence, it had been six months, and the word of his imprisonment wouldn't have traveled that slowly, besides, he knew no one who would visit him in prison even if they did hear about it. As he entered the room, Sier noticed a few other prisoners conversing with visitors and an open seat with a male Rodian visitor on the other side of the glass. The guard led him to that seat. "Here you go. Fifteen minutes."

"What do you want?" Sier said to the Rodian after the guard had left. He had a darker complexion for his race, though it was still a green, and wore a red shirt with a rust colored chest plate and shoulder and arm guards.

"Now is that anyway to treat your old pal Reis?" The Rodian replied

"It might be." Sier, having never seen this Rodian before, knew that the Rodian was putting on an act about knowing him, and that he was expected to play along. Something was happening, and he was somehow involved. "So, what are you here for?"

"Well I was just here to say 'hi'. I wanted to see how you were doing" Reis said in a somewhat friendly voice

"I'm in a prison, it's the best. Free food, a free roof. Just the best." was his sarcastic reply.

"Come on, you should have known better than to get caught for whatever it is you did." Reis said, gesturing with his hands. "By the way, what did you get canned for?"

"For exercising my right to live in Coruscant." Sier answered bitterly.

"Right, just because Gossams are being persecuted, doesn't mean they're throwing random Gossans in prison for no reason." He said; however, it was at this time that Sier noticed the repetition of the hand gestures Reis kept making. It was also very familiar. After a few seconds he recognized what it was. The Gossam's second language that is spoken through hand gestures, that every Gossam learns starting from a young age. He said _'In two days, you'll get help. We need you. Accept or die.'_

"It's true. These guys would probably have pulled the first Gossam they saw. Unfortunately it was me they saw first" Sier said to cover the end of the message.

"Well, it's only been a few minutes. How about you make a good impression to the guards by being done quickly?"

"They'll probably think I'm up to something." Sier said honestly

"Well it's been a pleasure talking with you again my dear friend. I'll see you around." Reis said standing up and leaving.

"Guard! I'm done." Sier shouts toward the guard

"Your fifteen minutes aren't up. I hope you're not up to anything." The guard said coming over to Sier and directing him to follow. Sier just remained quiet as he was led down the hall back to the mess hall.

 _Two Days later_

Sier was in his cell waiting for the call to lunch. As was usual at this time he would scheme, plans of escape and reestablishing his small but profitable company that the Galactic Republic thought was " _illegal"._ The Republic authorities would never have targeted him had Shu Mai, the leader of the Gossams and the Commerce Guild, not joined the Confederates. Before any major schemes could surface the buzzer rang, signifying all the doors opening and lunch. Sier and his fellow inmates headed out of their cells and toward the mess hall. As the group neared Seir's favorite place in the facility, someone poked him in the back. "Hey Buddy." The person whispered. Sier remained silent. "Hey Buddy, I've got something I'd like to tell you." The other person said again, poking him in the back once more

"Then say it." Sier said

"No no, you need to be looking at me." The stranger replied

"Then wait for the mess hall." Sier said planning on losing him in the mass of bodies that would be present.

"Nah man, I've got to tell you now." The stranger said, obviously aware of Sier's plan of losing him. Sier looks over his shoulder to a human only slightly taller than him, standing at 4'9" Sier guessed. He had a blond flat-top haircut and a beard long enough to touch his chest. He had dark tanned skin and wore an orange prison suit also. "Listen I'm new around here, and I was wondering, because no one messes with you, if…"

"Alright shut up, the answer is no." Sier said looking forward and cutting the stranger off. Sier did catch the hidden message. The man spoke with his hands, just like the Rodian two days ago. He moved his hands when he spoke, to the common eye it would look like he just gestured as he spoke, but to Sier he was using the Gossan's secret sign language. He said _'Be ready in three minutes.'_

Sier entered the mess hall where the mob had already arived. The guards only intervened if a brawl started, but that did happen often enough. Sier waited for an opening then dashed in and grabbed a tray and dashed back out, waiting for his next chance. He saw his chance and went for the main course, meat flavored slop. He managed to get some and dash out, then dash right back in as an opening appeared and get a good amount of vegetable flavored slop. He then went over to an open table, looking around to see only a few other inmate seated with their food. As soon he sat down he looked over at the serving table, just as it exploded.

Sier's reflexes caused him to lift his tray in front of him hearing a loud _slap!_ as some of the food hit it a millisecond later.He set the tray down and saw guards rushing toward what was left of the serving table. It was an even bigger mess than it was before. The explosion had sent food to the far reaches of the mess hall and had knocked everyone close to it over and stunned them, the closes ones probably unconscious or even dead.As most of the guards moved over to the destruction to assess the situation, Sier noticed his human "buddy" from before moving toward an unguarded exit.Sier followed. As the human reached the exit he looked back to see Sier moving towards him. He motioned for him to hurry. As Sier got there the doors opened to two republic guards who looked down at them, then turned around as both said at the same time "Follow me." The human followed them with confident steps, as Sier followed with more cautious ones. The "guards" led the prisoners to another door that was guarded by two more guards, who were shot with stun rays by the two supposed guards who were escorting Sier and his human companion. The guards then led them down several flights of stairs to the lower levels and into the energy room.

The guards led them to an energy-cell box which they proceeded to remove from the wall with relative ease, to reveal a tunnel about 5 feet tall and 4 feet wide. "The master is waiting," one of the "guards" said.

Sier and the human then went into the tunnel. "So who are you?" Sier asked the human stranger after the energy-cell box was replaced.

"My name is Argon Duli," the human replied. "I'm a bounty hunter, and I was hired to get in here and get out with you, alive."

"And who's your boss?" Sier asked, his voice echoing slightly

" _Our_ boss. He's your boss too now," the bounty hunter Argon replied.

"Since when? I don't even know who this guy is."

"He's either your boss, or you're dead in that explosion back in the mess hall," Argon said nonchalantly.

"Whatever, just who is he?" Sier said annoyed. Sier knew when he owed someone and in this case he owed whoever got him out a great deal.

"His name is Rune Haako. A Neimodian with the Confederacy," Argon said

"Wasn't he in charge of the Naboo blockade?" Sier asked recalling hearing something about it from the news.

"No, that was Viceroy Gunray. Rune was Viceroy's second-in-command. They got out, before the blockade blew up." Argon answered.

"Well I'm surprised he got past Coruscant's atmosphere without being detected or shot down."

"He didn't, I'm here to take you to him. He's in Confederate territory."

"Very well," Sier said as they exited the tunnel to a cave with a ship on a cleared patch. The ship was a small two man spacecraft sized to fit smaller creatures, like Sier, or dwarf humans, like Argon. It was of a semicircle shape, maybe 15 feet long and 20 to 25 feet wide at the widest, with a cockpit centered in the back and two laser cannons mounted side-by-side in the front middle; they were obviously modified or completely added on. It was painted with a green and tan design, probably for a small amount of camouflage, though it wasn't in a camo design. "Is this your ship?" Sier asked, thinking that under normal circumstances a bounty hunter would want something bigger for the more common bigger species.

"Yep this is my ship. It's not my normal ship; that one's much bigger, but this one was gifted to me as part of my payment to rescue you. Say hello to _The Mother's Daughter_." Argon said opening the cockpit from his wrist consul as he climbed on to it.

"What's your other ship's name?" Sier asked climbing up after Argon to the seat behind the first that Argon sat down in.

" _Pride,_ " He said with, well, pride. "I've had her for a very long time and she's never failed me once."

"Yes, good to know." Sier said not really caring. Argon started up the engines and took off out of the cave and into the air. The flight was silent except for the beeps of the machine as buttons were pressed or as statuses changed. They made it to space without going through any sort of security. _'Some sort of loophole these guys must have found… or made.'_ Sier thought to himself. They stopped at a nearby refueling station on an asteroid in a compression bubble.

"There's a change of clothes behind you so you can get out of that very inconspicuous convict outfit of yours." Argon said, grabbing a military style backpack and pulling out an under suit and light armor. Sier swiveled his chair around to see a similar backpack on the floor with some less than fancy Gossam clothes in it, but seeing as the financial state of most Gossams since the Commerce Guild joined the Separatist, the clothing choice would indeed be inconspicuous. He changed in his half of the cockpit while Argon changed in his. When they finished, Argon put both pairs of jumpsuits into one back pack and threw it into a trash bin with a fire in it. Then he filled _The Mother's Daughter_ up with fuel and left the station.

"It's going to be a good 7 days before we get to where we're going." Argon said prepping the ship for a jump to hyperspace.

"Where are we going that's 7 days away?" Sier asked annoyed that he'd have to spend 7 days in such a cramped place with Argon.

"Don't worry. We'll be stopping off at a bunker of mine 2 days from here to pick up _Pride_ , then it's 4 and a half more days to our destination **."**

"And where is our destination?" Sier asked annoyed.

"Oh it's a nice place, beautiful forests, nice mountains, just hope we don't crash when we get there. People have been known to do that." Argon said cheerfully.

"Endor? You're taking me to Endor?" Sier said unamused.

"Yep. I'm taking you to Endor." Argon replied quietly.

 **AN: Hello anyone who decided to read all the through the Prologue and Thank you very much. This is my first fanfiction I've written, though not the first story I've written; however, my writing could probably use to be improved. With that said, any and all criticism is appreciated. Any flame will be ignored. Just adds to my comment count. Lol.**

 **I don't have a time schedule set up at all, I'm a senior in high school so time is scarce, and I have the first five chapters planned and after that I'll have to start making it up so yeah. Expect Chapter 1 later this evening though. Thank you all again who reads this. Hope to see again next Chapter.**

 **-TheGreatNate**


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

He became aware of himself but complete darkness otherwise. He tried to open his eyes, and they opened. His opened eyes revealed a small aluminum desk with a holo-player set on it; surrounding it was a darkness so thick it looked like it could be a tangible obstacle. He looked down to see himself, a tan colored naked human body, hands and, legs. He sat himself in the chair at the desk. He looked back up to the holo-player and opened the first holo-video. A blue, semitransparent scene came to life. A humanoid creature with wrinkly skin and short, dark hair was looking at him in some sort of laboratory, or something like it.

"Wel….Ch..rLIE. WELco…arlie," Repeated the creature in the broken hologram. _'Welcome Charlie'_ he realized was what it was saying. _'Charlie. I'm Charlie. Yes_ I _am Charlie.'_ Charlie said in his mind. He subconsciously pressed the button to continue on from the first recording.

The next scene started to play. "Say hello to C…..ny." The broken voice of the creature could be heard, but instead of the first creature the face of a human girl, around the age of 10, could be seen. She had a round face with a pointed chin and very dark hair. "Courtney, this is Charlie." The creature said

"Hello!" Courtney said smiling and with a cute, semi-high pitched voice. Then the video turned off. A second later it turned back on to reveal another screen. On it was a list of names listed in pairs, following alphabetical order. Most of the names were unusual, but a few stood out, the first of these being Charlie and Courtney, then a second pair, Jirako and Jijna. And finally Viktor and Via. Next to each name was what looked like a title. Charlie only managed to catch two of these titles. His and Via's: 'The Man', and 'The Winner. After the holo-player finished it's quick scroll through the names, the holo-player powered down and the single light above Charlie went out.

Charlie woke with a start. He had just woken from a dream is all he realized. He looked around to see he was lying on a molding mattress, on a pile of garbage, in an ally. He wondered what he was doing there and tried to think back before he fell asleep, or even a few days ago, but he couldn't remember a thing. Nothing except his name, the five other names that had stood out to him on that list, and the wrinkly creature from the first holo-video. As Charlie tried to remember anything else, he felt something move at his side, and he looked down to see the girl from the second video, Courtney was he name, still around the same age, lying asleep, snuggled up next to him. Charlie just stared at her wondering what they were doing their in the alley as she slowly woke up.

"Good morning." She said with a smile after noticing Charlie

"Good morning." Charlie replied as Courtney gave a large yawn. "Hey, do you remember how we got here?"

"Well, we… No. I don't remember how we got here." She whispered, a little fear creeping into her voice.

"What all do you remember?" Charlie asked, his concern rising to very high levels very quickly, though he did let it show through his voice or face.

Courtney sat and thought for a few moments. "I remember your name, and that you're like my older brother, though you're not actually my brother."

"Well, that's something I can't remember." Charlie said

"I remember a name, Sier." Courtney said, staring off into empty space.

"I remember several other names, but, again, not that one." Charlie said, looking around the corner of a dumpster toward the entrance of the alley.

"What names do you remember?" Courtney asked looking back at Charlie

"I remember ours," He said, "but also four others. Two boys, Jirako and Viktor, and two girls, Via and Jijna."

"Okay. Do you remember anything else?" Courtney asked in a quiet voice.

"Nothing else." Charlie replied

"Me neither." She said. After a few seconds she threw off the thin sheets they were using as covers. Charlie looked down to see that he was wearing a pair of dark green cargo pants held up by a utility belt, and a black long sleeve shirt with shoulder guards covered with a light brown cloak. He had black boots on, and on his wrist he had a digital watch with a cheap looking communicator attached to it. He looked over at Courtney. She had her short, black hair back in a pony tail and was wearing loose pants and a shirt that went well past her hips wrapped around with a utility belt. She also had a cloak; however, her cloak only went down to her waist. She also had a watch with communicator.

"Well." Courtney said hopping up from the mattress. "Let's look around. Maybe something will jog our memories."

"Got nothing else to do." Charlie said, accepting Courtney's outstretched hand to help him up, which she did with incredible ease. She seemed to be incredibly strong Charlie realized. They exited the alley to see a heavily populated, industrial area with lots of both air and land traffic. They walked over to a safety rail and looked over it to see several more levels of walkways below them, also busy.

"I think this is Coruscant." Courtney said confused, and a tad bit exited.

"What are we doing on Coruscant?" Charlie said to himself

"Maybe we live here." Courtney answered for him.

"What if we don't?" Charlie asked

"Yeah. What about our parents," Courtney added. "if we had any." She finished quietly.

"Well! We live here now." Charlie said with determination; a determination to make it in this world or any, but also a determination to strive even as a… 10 year old? 11? _'How old am I?'_ Charlie looked over at Courtney, who was about the same height as him, to see her smile fading as his had just moments ago. "Courtney, do you have any idea how old I am?"

"Huh?" She said confused

"I can't remember how old I am. Can you remember?" Charlie said. Courtney closed her eyes.

"You are 13 years old right now," She said after a few seconds, then opened her eyes again. "but not for long if my memory is true."

"Well it's the only memory we've currently got, so we'll stick to it like it was the sun coming up each day." Charlie said smiling

"Fair enough. Now do you know how old I am? Because I do not." Courtney said keeping her smile the whole time

"Lemme think." Charlie said, really thinking; thinking as hard as he could. Taking in all of her physical characteristics he could, plus any fragment of sub-conscience memory of her that he could, one number kept coming up on top.

"11." He said confidently. "And I believe newly so."

"Really? Can you remember my birthday?" She asked

"I can almost." Charlie said. "I have a hunch on what it is but I'm not 100% sure."

"Well, I'm sure I know your birthday." Courtney said smugly.

"And that day is?" Charlie asked curious, expecting Courtney to tell him.

"Not telling. It'll be a surprise." She said, "Because we could never successfully do it when you were expecting it." She gave him a friendly punch while smiling.

Charlie smiled back. Then realized… "You remembered that you couldn't surprise me on my birthday!" He said smiling wider

"Yeah! At least that's something." She said happily.

"Come on." Charlie said heading back to the alley they came from. "Let's assess our supplies, or lack there-of, before we go anywhere."

"Agreed." Courtney said following Charlie into the alley. They go back into the alley where their mattress was and lifted it up to see if anything of use or value was underneath it. There wasn't. They then snooped around the pile of trash next to the mattress and found a single Galactic Credit. Courtney put it in one of the pouches in her belt. Charlie then checked the dumpster as Courtney checked a broken freezer.

"Nothing." Courtney said coming over to the dumpster that Charlie had recently started diving into to reach the depths of it.

"Well." Charlie said popping his head out. "I've had a little luck. I've found a key ornament, not in the best of conditions, but it still looks ok. Here's also a trophy for who-knows-what, made of some sort of metal, could make us some money if we sold it, and look over there, next to my shirt and cloak." he said pointing to His left, Courtney's right. "That is a jammed pellet blaster and here are two pellets that go with it. There's probably more in here, but I don't want to search any more. Move out the way, please. I'm coming out." He said, hopping out of the dumpster. He was covered in filth of all kinds. There was filth in his short cut light-brown hair, on his face, on his well-toned bare chest, and stained into his green pants. He was a mess.

"You're filthy." Courtney said plainly.

"Ha. I'm aware." Charlie replied chuckling. "I had something else, something just for you." He said searching through his pockets and pouches. "Where did I put it? Huh? What's this?" He said pulling out a handful of 10-Galactic Credits.

"Oh my." Courtney whispered.

"Count these." Charlie said handing them to her to search the rest of his pockets. After he finished searching his pockets, he had her search her's. Over all they found 613 Credits from both of them and two small beam-lights. They each got one light and Charlie took 300 Credits and Courtney got the rest.

"Well," Charlie said after they had distributed the money. "I think now we can get going."

"Then let's go." Courtney said following Charlie out the alley and down the walkway to whatever lies ahead of them.

 **Hello again! This is the first chapter of Man or Machine, hope you guys like it! Once again, criticism is appreciated, and flame just makes my review counter go up.**

 **I forgot to do this in the prologue so I'll do it now before I get in trouble. I don't own anything about Star Wars except my OCs. Everything else belongs to Disney. Good old Disney, buying everything up, but I won't go into that. :D**

 **Please follow this story for updates, leave a review if you want, and join me again for the next chapter. Bye!**

 **-TheGreatNate**


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

" _You know, your going to be discarded if you keep acting like that," said a robotic voice. Charlie opened his eye to see an old, CIS Commander Battle Droid standing in front of him._ 'What?' _He thought to himself. He then heard an explosion behind him and turned around to see a line of what he suspected to be Clone troopers, they looked similar to Storm troopers, but not exactly, marching forward. A man dressed in Jedi robes lead from the front. He ignited his blue light-saber. Charlie then felt his arm move up and his thumb press down on something, as a green saber ignited right in front of Charlie. He blinked in shock and everything was replaced with a bright light. He looked left and right to see he was in what looked like a bacta tube. A three fingered hand was placed on the glass and it started to crack where it was placed. The crack spread like a web until the entire glass was one large web design, and then it shattered._ And Charlie awoke.

' _Well, that's a new one.'_ Charlie thought quietly recalling his strange dream. He looked over at his alarm clock to see it was 6:27. _'Three minutes 'til it goes off.'_ He got up and turned the alarm off before it went off. He opened the curtain that surrounded his bed and looked over at Courtney's curtain to see it still closed. _'Still asleep.'_ He thought to himself, heading over toward the refresher. _'She does needs her sleep. She's been waking from nightmares often lately.'_ It's been a little over six years since the "first day", as Charlie and Courtney called the day they woke up in the alley without their memories of their past.

Charlie went to the refresher and got a shower. Afterwards, Charlie put on some brown pants and a red short-sleeve shirt. He exited the refresher, headed into the mini-kitchen and prepared two morning meals; he left one on the counter, and left after eating most of the other one, taking with him what he finished to eat on the way. He made his way to the Tran station and got aboard, heading to the downtown of their providence. He got off at his stop and got into a speeder taxi. "You know where 'Gunda's Glory' Diner is?" Charlie asked the driver.

"You bet I do." The blue Twi'lek driver replied

Charlie gave him a few credits and he headed off. They arrived at the diner a few minutes later as Charlie got off and headed toward the back entrance. He unlocked the door and went inside, threw on his bar-tending apron, and stepped into the front. Everyone went quiet and looked his way. When they realized who it was, they continued as they were before.

"Hey Chuck. Right on time, as usual" said a large male Sullustan, also wearing an apron but with stained white pants and shirt underneath. He had light brown skin for the most part and amber eyes: common for his race.

"You heading home for a nap, Tanner?" asked Charlie, though everyone at the diner knew him as "Chuck".

"Well actually, my wife has the day off today, so we'll be enjoying each other's company this fine day." Tanner said smiling

"Well I hope you two enjoy yourselves immensely." Charlie said.

"See ya, Chuck." Tanner said heading out the way Charlie had just came in. He then took over the bar and started serving drinks. A couple of the people at the bar counter said a "Good morn'" or a "Hey Chuck" and a few people in the crowd acknowledged him and greeted him.

He went toward the back of the bar, to a window to the kitchen to see that Amelia, the Twi'lek cook, who was supposed to have been relieved by now, was still back there working.

"Whatcha still doing here?" Charlie asked her playfully. Her skin was a peach color, and she wore a thick, long, black skirt that went down to her shins, a loose, white short-sleeve shirt, and a cooking apron.

"Butch isn't here yet." She said rather frustrated. "He's never here on time. In fact he normally arrives after you on his days to work."

"Have you talked to Gunda about it?" Charlie asked

"No. You think he doesn't know already?" She said snapping at him. "I'm sorry." She said regretfully after a few seconds

"Nah, it's ok. You're frustrated. Better to let some of it out on someone who can handle it than on someone who would cry about it, or snitch, or even make something up to 'get back at you'. Oh wait! That sounds like something Butch would do." Charlie said pretending to be surprised at the revelation which made Amelia smile at least.

"Hey Chuck, get me a shot will you?" said a voice from the front.

"Ah, that's my cue." Charlie said leaving. "What kind do you want?" He shouted back at the front

"Thanks Chuck." Amelia said. Though he didn't acknowledge it, she knew he heard her.

A few minutes later Butch came in complaining about a hangover he was having. _'What an idiot. He only works twice a week and comes in with a hangover, sometimes even drunk, both days.'_ Charlie thought to himself. Amelia was having similar thoughts.

"See you Amelia!" Charlie said as she left, a few other people echoing the call. She turned around and waved as she left.

"So when are you gonna ask her on a date?" An older Rodian by the name of Shekl asked.

"Very funny." Charlie said unamused, refilling a drink for another customer.

"I thought it was," laughed a human named Andrew. "But in all seriousness. You need to jump on that opportunity before someone else does."

"You know, you've said that for almost every girl I've worked with, right Andrew?" Charlie said moving over in front of them.

"It's cause we're hopin' one these days you'll listen to us." Shekl said less than seriously.

"Currently I have enough going on in my life." He said grabbing a bottle of beer and sliding it down the counter to the person who ordered it.

"Like what? Tending a bar at a diner with the same 18 customers every day?" Shekl replied

"Jeez, you make it sound like an insult serving you guys." Charlie retorted sarcastically.

"Come on. I just refuse to believe that you were raised to think this was the best you could do." Shekl said, seriously trying to encourage him to try and work his way to something better.

"One would hope." Charlie said quietly but Shekl still heard him.

"What do you mean by…" He started to say but stopped as the door was opened. Everyone stoped what they were doing to see who was walking in, considering all of the normal patrons for this time of day had already arrived. Charlie looked to see a triplet of storm troopers walking in. They came over to the bar and sat down at two adjacent open seats. The third one leaned beside the person sitting on the next chair down. The man seated was a newer customer, he only started coming about a week ago. The storm trooper was harassing him, trying to get him to move.

"Hey you. Nice day right? Me and my buddies are here for a nice drink, but we seem to be one chair short. Yours is a nice chair. I like it, and I'm sure you were just getting done. Right?" the storm trooper said, more a statement then a question.

"Umm." Was all the other man managed to get out before Charlie was in front of him and the trooper.

"Is there a problem?" Charlie asked.

"No. I was just waiting for him to move. He looked like he was about done." The storm trooper said nonchalantly still looking at the man, his two fellow troopers removed their helmets.

"Well he isn't." Charlie said. "He got his order just moments before you came in, so how about you find another seat. If you want to sit with your buddies _so much_ , then you can all three sit at one of the open tables."

"You do realize who I am. Right?" The trooper said in a threatening manner

"Yes. But you don't know who I am." Charlie replied

"I don't need to, and it doesn't matter. I still deserve more respect from you, from him, from all you scumbags in this crash heap sector." He said turning to the other patrons, " _I_ am an Imperial Storm Trooper."

' _Here we go again.'_ Charlie thought to himself, looking at the other two troopers. "Are you stationed here?" He asked

"What's it to you?" The trooper asked menacingly but confused

"Just answer." Charlie said coolly

"Yeah, why?"

"How long will you be stationed here?"

"Two full terms, unless emergency situations call me elsewhere. Again, why?"

"Because, you have now gained the rank of 'scumbag living in this trash heap sector' for two whole terms." Charlie said. "In this town, and in this diner, you'll be gettin' the respect you give your fellow 'scumbag'."

"Why you little…" The trooper said reaching for his blaster. Instantly Shekl and Andrew had their blasters out, plus two others at different tables, and five others had stood up and we're reaching for their's.

"And, it's all for one, and one for all here." Charlie said quietly. The trooper took his hand away from his blaster just as his buddies started chuckling at him. "Bud. Jake." Charlie greeted the two grinning troopers, as the rest of the diner sat back down and let out their breath, conversation continuing again, though slightly quieter. "Why do you always have to bring the shinies here?"

"Because you're the best person at teaching the newbies the law of the land down here, you never fail to do it, and you do it right every time." Jake said. He was rather young, in his mid to late twenties, with dirty blonde, just barely barracks legal length hair, and his small mustache under his nose had a strange red coloring in it. He had rather large, hazel eyes that never seemed to blink. His face was long and thin with very noticeable cheek bones, making him look like he was malnourished.

"Great. I'll put that on my resumé." Charlie said not amused. "The usual?"

"Yep," said Bud, who was much older than Jake, being in his late thirties, but looking like he was nearing his fifties. He was bald, either by choice or not I'm not sure, but had a chocolate brown goatee. His face was very smoothed over, without much definition to his cheeks or jaw, and wrinkly. "Oh and this is SH-686." He said pointing to the new guy, "His nickname's Lucifer."

Lucifer was also younger, somewhere in his mid-twenties, with no facial hair and a buzz cut that left the color of his hair up for debate; it could be anything between dirty blonde to raven black, it was just too short to really tell. His face had some definition to it, especially at his jaw, but was still over-all mostly smooth in his features.

"Welcome to 'Gunda's Glory'" Charlie said after looking him over, Lucifer doing the same to Charlie. "We're glad to have you here, even after the small misunderstanding earlier."

"Yeah, whatever." Lucifer said. After Charlie gave Bud, Jake and Lucifer their drinks they went over to a table and sat down, talking amongst themselves quietly, just like everyone else had taken to doing.

 **AN: Hey everybody and anybody who reads the author notes (I don't sometimes). I hope you enjoyed chapter 2 of Man or Machine! I should be able to upload chapters 3, 4, and possibly 5 within the end of the week but after chapter 5, I'm rewriting what I have (which is only one and a half chapters) so expect a larger gap between chapters after that.**

 **Please feel free to comment, favorite, and/or follow this story. All three of those encourage me vastly. Now, it's off to do homework. Until next time, enjoy!**

 **-TheGreatNate**


	4. Chapter 3

Courtney laid there thinking of her most recent dream. She had had it before but it was still strange to her and always happened when she started to forget it. _In her dream Courtney wakes up in a small room on the top bunk of a set of bunk beds. She jumps down and turns to the bottom bunk to see she's woken a feline looking girl that looks around 7 or 8, maybe 6._

" _Good morning." The lioness would always say with a strange accent, rolling her 'r's in a strange way and adding the slightest hint of a 'w' after the 'g' in 'good'. Her face was completely covered in a brownish, almost coppery colored, fur, with an angular face and small nose, very much like a feline. She had pointed ears near the top of her head, and a thin mane from her brow to behind her jawbone and around her neck. She was wearing a thin, loose robe of a light tan coloring. Courtney was also wearing one just like the feline-girl, she knew because she always did in her all of her previous dreams like this one._

" _Good morning, Trijalla." Courtney would say in response. She would then turn around and her vision would change. Everything would be in a strange green hue. She would see clone troopers, or what she assumed were clone troopers since they looked like storm troopers but were slightly different, and had blue details on their armor, while all the storm troopers she's seen has been plain white or a few grey details. They started firing at her, their blaster fire blue, and then people behind and beside her would start firing at the troopers with red blaster fire. When she looked at those around her, they were just dark, humanoid figures, but they always continued marching, unafraid of being shot down._

 _After both sides taking casualties, a blue light came from the enemy's frontline. It was a single beam stretching about three feet long and white in the middle._ 'A lightsaber!' _Courtney realizes. He's a Jedi. And she feels fear from seeing him. She can never figure why?_

Just then she heard Charlie's breathing change; a pause, for a second or two, and then a deeper breath, and quickened breathing. _'He's awake.'_ She realizes. She stayed where she was, unmoving. She heard Charlie mess with his clock, then paused, probably deciding if he should get up. He got up after a few seconds and opened his curtain; another pause, probably to see if she was still asleep. He then walked to the refresher and closed the door, apparently convinced she was still asleep.

She went back to recounting the dream in her head. _After seeing the Jedi's blade, her vision turns to black then names show up. The same ones Charlie remembered on the "first day"._ "Charlie, Courtney, Jirako, Jijna, Viktor, Via" _. She opens her eyes to three figures: a Gossam, a human, around the same size, and a Rodian, their features indistinguishable because of a bright light shining from behind them. Courtney tries to move but fees restraints on her arms, legs, torso, and even around her head._

" _The restraints are unneeded, you know that right?" asked a strange somewhat high-pitched voice, probably from the Rodian. "She always follows the rules. That's why she's called 'The Law'. She even manages to keep 'The Man' in check."_

" _That may be true, but this process is incredibly painful. We don't want her to thrash around." said a more human voice._

" _Enough, chit-chat." said another strange voice, though different than the first, this voice seemed to be smoother in pronouncing it's words. "Let's get this over with." The three move forward and around Courtney and stands the bed she was strapped to completely vertical. She could never distinguish the detail of the three people because they always seemed to be in front of lights like they were when they arrived, or behind her and out of view. They step behind her where she hears a few loud bangs and the sound of connecting and strapping things together. All three then leave the room and leave her like that for a short amount of time, then she feels a burning sensation in her mind and in a second, it's down her whole body._ And she always wakes up after that.

Charlie was still in the refresher when she finished recollecting the story. She then started thinking about the part of her dream where her vision is green and she sees the Jedi. The first vision Courtney is sure she has figured out. Courtney was an orphan or something and she still has a fragment of her memories and the feline-girl, Teijalla, must have been her roommate, but the second part… She has no idea. No idea why the troopers were shooting at her and her "comrades", whoever they were, and why she felt so fearful toward the Jedi. And she couldn't figure why her vision was in a green hue. It made absolutely no sense. None of it. _'Maybe it's a mixture of several memories and the added strangeness of dreams."_ Courtney thought.

Then there are the names. Perhaps they're there just from her memory of Charlie saying them back on the "first day". _'Or maybe I knew those people too.'_ Finally, the last part of the dream. The three figures. She _knows_ she knows them from somewhere, but the question is from where. Courtney believes one of them to be Sier, the name she remembered on the "first day", but which one? Before she could think on anything else, Charlie exited the refresher, she could see, through a crack in her curtain that he was dressed in work clothes for the diner. His hair gelled to stick up, almost like a top cut, but not quite. He went into the kitchen, which could still be seen into from the bedroom(s). He made two meals, one for himself and one for her, as always. He didn't finish his meal before he had to leave, so he took his leftovers with him to finish on the way.

Once Charlie left Courtney got up and headed to the refresher to showered, coming out wrapped in a towel, and going back to her section for her clothes. After putting on a nice, white short-sleeve shirt, and a pair a black pants that were tighter than most of her other pants, she ate her still warm morning mean. After finishing it, she rinsed both her and Charlie's dishes, then grabbed her things and headed out the door, locking it with her key. She walked toward the mall, which was quite a ways away. Along the way she found a taxi speeder and got in, asking the driver to take her to the mall.

The mall was small, compared to other malls in the "better parts" of Coruscant, but still had around thirty shops in it with even more kiosk. Once inside, Courtney headed to the security entrance. She pulled her ID card from her pocket and scanned it on the door console, unlocking the door. She went inside and went to her locker and got her uniform and put it on over her clothes. She then headed to a jewelry store in the mall and went into the security area in the back.

"Hey Court," a man who was also wearing a security uniform said as she passed. The sound of his voice made Courtney's shoulders to drop a little and a small sigh to escape her. His voice , to her, was clear that there was a question soon to follow, and she knew exactly what that question would be.

"No Junior, I won't accept your offer to go on a date." She said still walking without looking at him.

"I never asked that." Junior said defensively.

"Yes, but you always do _and_ you're no good at masking your voice, or your body language either." Courtney said matter-of-factly.

"Oh come on, give a guy a break. You can read anybody easy, even if I try. I still don't know how you can do that." He said as they reached the back where the cameras were. And no one was there.

"Junior, is this supposed to be your station?" Courtney asked solemnly.

"Well you see, umm, yeah it kinda is, but I, uh wanted to welcome you when you got here so…" He said a bit nervous.

"So you left one of the most important stations in this store?" She asked seriously and slightly scoldingly though not angrily. "I appreciate your thought, but that doesn't give you reason enough to leave your station."

"I think it does," Junior said under his breath though Courtney still heard him.

Courtney sighed. "Junior, one of the reasons I won't accept your offer is because you keep proving that you have a tendency of being unreliable and irresponsible. You have many great qualities but your few rotten shuura ruin the batch." Junior's face took on a shameful look. Courtney put her hand on his shoulder. "No one's perfect but most of your negative qualities can be removed. You just have to get rid of them yourself." He looked up at her and smiled at her, and she smiled back.

"Thanks Court." Junior said.

"You're welcome, and thank you for not being upset. Most people don't want to hear the truth about themselves, and will just deny it." Courtney said.

"Well I guess I see what you're talking about. Could you help me though?" He asked.

"I could," Courtney answered, "but so could many of your other coworkers that you work with when I'm not around."

"So…" He started to say, but Courtney knew what he was going to ask.

"You can start by getting back to your job," she nodded toward the security-camera room. "If you need me ill b in the front, just call me over the coms." She finished, grabbing her communicator from the rest of the coms that were charging next to the security screens, and walking away toward the front of the store, toward her station. She reached the front and sat in her "booth". It was a swiveling, high chair next to a large podium/stand thing with a portable holo-computer on it which was hooked up to a scanner next to the door. The scanner was programmed to be constantly searching for any trace of a special formula that is put on all of the items in the store that only the cashiers can remove after it is bought. However, recently people have found a way to block the scanner from picking up the formula; making the scanner less reliable now. Which is why Courtney had been repositioned from a wander, someone who goes around the store making sure nothing unusual is going on and nothing's out of place, to entrance and exit manager. Her job was to make sure people didn't make it out of the store with merchandise unpaid for.

She had been working this position for two weeks now and had only caught one person so far. As she sat and waited, looking at the screen constantly and looking at the people leaving the store to see if any show signs of thievery, she thought, thought about several things. She thought about what she was going to do about Junior, should she continue ignoring his proposals, or should she give him another chance? She thought about her old job as a wanderer, she had enjoyed that much more than sitting around looking at every person like they did something wrong, she could wander the aisle looking at all of the jewelry ad see what she could save up for or just browse, mostly just browse. She thought about her dream, if it was important and if so then how it was.

Several hours passed with nothing happening. She started to get really tired at this point.

" _Hey Court. I think we have a '_ zerek _'; he's headed your way. A human male, brown hair, tall; about 5'11", maybe 6 feet,"_ Junior's voice came in through her earpiece to her com. A _"zerek"_ being a shoplifter.

"Roger that Junior, I'll keep an eye out for him." Courtney said into her wrist com. She eyed everyone that left after that; there was two female Twi'leks, a human mother and child, and a young, rich looking female human. Then a tall man with dark brown hair started heading for the door.

" _Courtney, I saw the man again. It looked like he was headed for the door,"_ Junior's voice came in again.

"Understood," Courtney said quietly. She watched the man head for the door. He walked in a confident manner, standing tall, and shoulders out, like a man of respect. He even didn't flinch when he saw Courtney glaring at him, acting like he didn't see her. It was faked. Even the most innocent person will give a slight change in their demeanor when a security officer stares at them. His demeanor remained ' _I_ am the most innocent person. Don't worry, because I'm not worried.'

Courtney stood up to intercept him. He noticed but acted as if he expected her to go to something or someone else. Instead she walked in front of him and stopped. He stopped before running into her.

"I'm going to have to ask you to come with me." Courtney said calmly. The stranger gave a look of annoyance. 'She seems to suspect me but I didn't do anything to raise suspicion. I can still fool her easily.' Courtney read his body language and face clearly.

May I ask what for? I was just browsing and didn't buy anything. I was looking for a nice piece for a friend; they're leaving and we're throwing this big farewell party." He said giving his excuse.

Lies. The farewell party for a "friend" seemed to be true, but that wasn't why he was here, or the reason he stole whatever it is he had. "I'm still going to have to ask you to follow me." She said making it obvious she wasn't buying the story.

"Please, I have to get going or I'll be late to my work." He came up with that one just now probably.

"I'm afraid you'll be late, now please follow me." Courtney demanded. Anger spiked all across his face and there was slight movement in the shoulders, as his right hand made a movement towards his coat pocket; _'He's got a gun!'_ Courtney realized.

She whipped her gun out of its holster, switching it from lethal to stun as it came out, and shooting the man straight in the chest, knocking him out before he could act. A woman nearby screamed and the cashier people stood in slight shock, prepared to grab their concealed weapons if they were needed. Courtney bent over the body and searched through the fancy cloak to reveal green slime splattered on the insides. _'This might be what's been blocking the scanner from working.'_

" _Courtney, Scanners picked up a stun charge fired and I could hear a small amount of commotion out there. You ok?"_ Junior said into hear ear.

"Yes I'm ok, and the suspect is stunned. Get Greg down here to take him to the back and notify the authorities." She replied into her communicator.

" _Roger. Any civilians injured?"_ Junior asked genuinely concerned for the welfare of everyone. That's one of his good characters; he truly cares for the safety of every being he comes into contact with.

"No Junior, none."

After a pause, _"Ok roger that. Greg is on his way."_ Junior said.

"Roger that, thank you."

 **Hey, sorry for anyone who's actually following this, but I've been super busy with school, but I've gotten this chapter done finally. If there are mistakes you guys notice, feel free to let me know, I don't have a beta reader and I'm editing this myself, so I expect some mistakes.**

 **The next chapter won't be out for a while, but hopefully it'll be uploaded quicker than this last chapter.**

 **Disclaimer: Star Wars is own by Disney, not me; though I take ownership of my original characters and the plot of this story.**

 **-TheGreatNate**


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

After throwing up three times Butch called in someone to take his shift. A little while later a Besalisk came in and took Butch's place. Charlie didn't know him personally, but he remembered his name was Oswald. After that Charlie's shift was uneventful. The storm troopers left, so did Andrew, but Shekl stayed, he always stayed their longer that Charlie, and he was always there before Charlie. Sometimes Charlie was convinced Shekl lived in the diner.

"Shekl, are you ever going to leave?" Charlie asked jokingly.

"I'll leave when I've drank my last drink." He replied.

"When is that?" Charlie asked.

"It all depends." He replied

"On what?"

"When I feel like it." He said almost whispering, he was obviously tipsy, though not drunk; Charlie had never seen him drunk.

"You don't have anywhere to be like usual I see."

"Nowhere." Shekl grumbled

"Well I still can't understand why you'd waste your time here getting drunk at noon," Charlie said sarcastically.

"I ain't drunk yet," he mumbled back.

Charlie went to get a bottle of some exotic liqueur when the door opened again. Everyone got quiet and looked at the door. In came a young male Togruta followed by a female Togeuta, both being about 17 or 18. The female was light orange with purplish stripes in her head-tails and montrals while the male was a darker shade of orange and had dark grey stripes in his head-tails. They both wore cloaks that wrapped around them to their heels. They went and sat at a table in a corner. Talk resumed to its rather normal state, though maybe a little less "illegal" conversations. A female Twi'leck waitress named Terra went over and asked for their order. She walked away slowing as she got farther away, an old trick to make it seem that you're walking the same speed, but allowing you to stay in ease dropping distance longer. Terra went to the window and told Oswald the order then motioned for Charlie to follow her into the kitchen.

"What's the matter? Are those two up to something?" Charlie asked after walking into the kitchen.

"I don't know, honestly, I didn't catch much of what they were saying." She replied, whispering, looking a little nervous.

"And?" Charlie said calmly knowing there was more.

"I heard them say they needed to find Charlie." She whispered

"Hmm."

"Do you know them." Terra asked still whispering

"If I did, I don't remember." Charlie said looking out the circular window in their direction. "Perhaps they're looking for a different Charlie."

"Yes but I also heard then mention "court"; do you think they're trying to nab you for something?" Terra asked. Had it been anyone else he might not have believed them, but Terra was the best at ease dropping, and had never made a provable mistake ever since she had been working there. That mention of "court" convinced Charlie that they were talking about him and Courtney. "So what are you going to do?" Terra asked when Charlie didn't say anything for several seconds.

"I'm going to tell the only other one here that knows my real name to make sure he doesn't use it." Charlie said.

"No, I mean about the Togutas." Terra said.

"I don't know them, and they're not at the bar, I should be fine," he said simply. He went back to the bar and handed out a few drinks, then went over to Shekl. "Hey Shekl,"

"What?" He said a little aggressively.

"What's my name?" Charlie said quietly

"Your name's Chuck. Did you forget?" Shekl said quietly though laughing a little at his own wittiness.

"That's right, and what's not my name?" Charlie said.

"Ahh," Shekl said pointing his finger at Charlie, understanding what he was hinting at. "It's _not_ Charlie." He said in a whisper.

"Correct again." Charlie said a little louder

"Of course I'm right!" Shekl shouted. "I'm always right!"

"Shekl, shut up before you annoy someone." Someone said in the small crowd of people. A small amount of laughter came from that and some grumbled swears and curses from Shek.

 _〰〰_ _A few minutes earlier_ _〰〰_

Viktor looked up at the sign: 'Gunda's Glory'.

"You sure he's here?" Asked Via, a female Togruta, next to him. He looked down at her. She was shorter than him, her 4 inch montrals reaching his eyes, and one year younger almost exactly. Her skin was a bright orange with white striped details, on her face the only detail was two small boomerang shapes on her cheekbones. Her head-tails and montrals were white and indigo striped; the head-tails reached down to her breasts.

"Yes. I believe my informant, he's never given me false info befor." Viktor replied confidantly. They walked in and silence fell on the previously noisy diner and looked at them, eyeing them up; they just stood there waiting. After a few seconds conversations started up again and Viktor and Via went to a back corner table and sat down. Viktor looked around to see several different species of aliens, though most were humans, spread around at tables and at the bar. The bar tender was a younger human, maybe around the age of 20 or 21, who eyed them up suspiciously, though not threateningly, more like "your-new-what-are-you-doing-here?". He was tall, and lightly tanned, and he was well fit, enough to see his bulging muscles under his shirt and apron, and he had short hair, longer near the brow, shorter farther back, spiked up. Viktor tried to mask his face to not give anything away. There was also an older Rodian at the bar who was obviously a bit tipsy, two humans, neither of who looked drunk nor tipsy yet, and a Mon Calamari who was probably not drinking liquor, since it's slightly more poisonous to their species than other species. _'Practically everyone here has a blaster.'_ Viktor noticed. All this he took in in a few seconds as the Twi'lek waitress came over to them. Her name tag said 'Terra'.

"Good afternoon," she said politely. "What can I get you two?"

"I'll get some muja juice." Via said

"Fresh water pleased." Viktor said

"And what do you think you'll want for your meals?" She asked.

"Ill just have the water." Viktor said.

"Well I want the Besh-leth-trill sandwich." Via said.

"All right. I'll be back with your orders soon." Terra said , then turned and walked away

"You think that might be Courtney?" Via said quietly though not as quiet as Viktor would have liked.

"I don't think so, she's supposed to be human and that Twi'lek's name tag said Terra." He said. "And besides, Charlie's suppose to be the one who works here, not Courtney." He finished looking around to make sure no one heard them. The waitress seemed far enough away by then and everyone else was never in eavesdropping range to begin with. _'Where'd the bar tender go?'_ Viktor thought noticing him missing. He came back to the front shortly after and talked to the happy Rodian.

The tender said something, which the Rodian replied with a loud "What?"

The bar tender then shushed him and talked some more to, and the Rodian now spoke in hushed tone as well, another word from the human and then: "Of course I'm right! I'm always right!"

"Shekl, shut up before you annoy someone." Someone said from a nearby table. A few laughs echoed.

"Hey Chuck! Another one over here, would'ya?" said one of the patrons at the bar. The bar tender, Chuck, filled their mug full of some sort of liqueur. _'Chuck? Sounds like a nickname to me.'_ Viktor though

"Via, I've found him." Viktor whispered to his companion.

"Where?" She asked looking around a little.

"Stop making it obvious. He's the bar tender." He said out of the side of his mouth. "His nickname's 'Chuck' but I doubt that's his real name. Besides, he works here, he's working now, and he's human, no one else fits the description of Charlie."

The waitress came out from the back with a tray with two drinks and a sandwich on it. She walked over to their table and handed the water to Viktor and the sandwich and juice to Via. She seemed nervous about something.

When she walked away Viktor took both drinks put his index finger in his water and put the drop in his tongue. Tasting nothing unusual he allowed himself to swallow the drop. He then put his pinky into Via's juice and put a drop on his tongue. _'Flavored drinks are so hard to tell.'_ He thought while trying to recognize any abnormal flavors. Satisfied that there wasn't any, he swallowed and handed the drink back to Via, who had already tested the sandwich for any poison without actually taking a bite.

"I like this place, they seem nice," Via said jokingly, though truthfully, it was a relief to finally be able to eat and drink something that hadn't been poisoned.

Via ate in silence and Viktor emptied his cup quickly, but didn't allow the waitress to refill it. When Via finished, Viktor left around 20 Credits for the meal and the tip, and they both headed out.

"So, what now?" Asked Via

"We wait," Viktor said looking around for a place to wait until Charlie's shift ended. There were several shops around; clothes, holo tech, groceries, ect., but nothing that they could stay at for a while without raising suspicions. Finally, they found a pavilion with Gunda's Glory in sight, they sat there and waited, at least Viktor did. Via would leave to a shop from time to time.

"If I call you on the com link, you had best answer." Viktor said the first time she left. She went to five different shops in the span of three hours, now making it around 5:00 in the evening.

"Ok," she said, "now it's your turn to go to a shop and ill sit and watch."

"No thank you." Viktor said simply.

"You're not allowed a 'no thank you'. You need to go do something, anything, not just sit and wait." She said. No response. "Come on, he'll be out within the hour so do something now _before_ he comes out."

"To late," Viktor said. Via looked to see the bar tender Charlie leaving the alley next to the diner. She let out a mixture of a sigh and a 'humph'.

"Let's go, we can't afford to lose him." Viktor declared standing up and heading quickly in Charlie's direction, Via following a step behind. As they neared him they stayed a steady distance away, but Charlie then got into a speeder taxi. Viktor caught another one's attention and had him follow Charlie's speeder, offering a substantial amount of money. The driver gave them a look but didn't question them as he started following the other taxi. Charlie took a strange and confusing route to the lowest poorest section on the planet surface. Charlie got out and started walking. Viktor had the cab drop them off a block away.

"Don't know why you're following him," the driver said as they got out. "But I know that kid, I'll take your money and give you some advice: leave him alone." He finished with speeding away before either could reply.

"Let's go," Viktor said. They followed Charlie trying to stay undetected. He walked up to an old, medium sized cargo spaceship that had been changed into a house. Charlie knocked and waited. _'I have a bad feeling about this'_ Viktor thought.

 **Hey everyone, this one took less time to do; probably because I had already had this one typed and I just edited it on my road trip to visit my bother. But yeah, hopefully I can get the next one up quickly again since I have that one typed up as well I just need to edit it, but I do have two other stories I'm working on, another FanFic. I want to do, and spring-break is ending soon :'( Oh well.**

 **New characters! You'll like these two, at least I do. Next chapter we're back with Courtney, seeing what she's been up to while Charlie dealt with stalkers. Until then, adios.**

 **Disclaimer: I still don't own Star Wars or Disney and Disney still owns Star Wars. OC are mine though.**

 **-TheGreatNate**


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

The thief was taken to a temporary holding cell by Greg, a 6'4" bluish-green Nautolan, until the authorities arrived. When the authority did arrive, they asked Courtney a few questions, took the captive, and left, and the rest of Courtney's shift was uneventful. When her shift ended at 2:00 she went to the back to clock out, where she ran into Junior, also clocking out.

"I thought your shift didn't end for another few hours." Courtney said playfully.

"Well today I was going to get off early for something, no I'm not going to tell you what for, but it was cancelled, and it would've been too much work to get them to let me work my full shift." He said in one and a half breaths, which was normal for him.

"Well do you have any new plans?" Courtney asked.

"To be honest, no. Maybe go out somewhere and eat then head back home and, well, do… anything." He said a little down. He then took a deep breath then let it out. Courtney knew a question was coming, probably to a date; however, his poster was different then when he usually asked her out: calmer, less fidgety.

"Courtney…" He started.

"Yes?" Asked Courtney, having idea of the question, and not like it, let it known through her voice.

"No, I'm not going to ask you on a date, well, not a real date." He said. "The truth is: I don't really know you or that much about you. Yeah, I know you're pretty, smart, and your name is Courtney, but aside from that, not much else."

"And?" Courtney asked, already knowing where this was headed.

"Well, I'd like to be friends," he said

"And I'm sure you wouldn't mind our friendship leading to something more?" Courtney asked suspiciously, though not accusingly.

"Well I was thinking about what you said, and what you've said in the past and thought: she's a pretty cool person, she'd make a good friend," he explained quickly.

"But you don't just want to be friends just to raise your chances with getting me to go out with you?" Courtney asked

"No! I'd still like to be friends even if I knew it wouldn't go any farther than that," he said quickly, but truthfully.

"Well, what did you have in mind?" Courtney asked, satisfied.

"What?" asked Junior, not expecting her to be so… accepting of the idea. "Uh, well I was actually hoping you could join me for lunch," he said before Courtney answered him, "strictly as two coworkers trying to become friends."

"I could manage that." She said. "I was planning on going to library, but I can go out for lunch before that."

"Great, I really had no idea where to go, so I'll let you choose." Junior said.

One place came to mind quickly, but after thinking about it, Courtney decided it probably wasn't a good idea to go there with a male companion. She decided to go with the second place she thought of. "How about Dexter's Diner?"

"The Diner in CoCo Town? Isn't that on a pretty bad side of town?" Junior asked cautiously.

"It's not _that_ bad; CoCo Town has improved lots, since that gang, the Yellow Scarves, were run outta town," She said cheerfully.

"Yeah, well, it was never that good of a district to begin with," he said still not happy with her choice. "But, if that's where you want to go, I'll take you. I guess if you want to go there then you aren't scared of the area, so we shouldn't get into that much trouble, right?"

"Most people shouldn't mess with us, especially with me around, plus I'll steer us clear of anyone who would mess with us." She said.

"Great, I'm being protected by a girl now," Junior said to himself not to quietly.

"I did just shoot down a burglar." She said with a smile.

"I guess you're right," he said scratching the back of his head nervously. "Wait, why would most people leave you alone?"

"I have I few friends that most people in CoCo Town know not to mess with, or anyone close to them," Courtney said calmly.

"Really, what kind of people? Who?" he asked confused, then his demeanor changed, "I mean, you don't have to tell me, I don't have to know."

"No, they're not crime lords or gang members or anything like that, Junior," Courtney explained, knowing what he had inferred about her friends.

"I never said that they were," he denied quickly.

"But you were thinking it," Courtney said playfully

"Ok, so how do you do it?" he asked.

"Do what?" Courtney replied innocently.

"Read minds, I swear that's what you're doing," he exclaimed.

"Like I've said before, 'it's not so much reading minds…'" she started

"'…as it is reading one's body language'," Junior finished. "I still don't even know what that means, how you do it, or where you learned to it."

"To be honest, I don't really remember where I learned it from either, if I even learned it and wasn't just born with it," she said with a sad smile.

"Well whatever the case, it's freaky and fantastic, and it sure helps out as a security personnel", Junior said making Courtney chuckle.

"Thanks Junior," she said giving him a smile, one that wasn't sad.

"No problem. Let's get going, we can take my ride if you're ok with it." She accepted. His ride wasn't bad, sure it's brakes probably didn't meet safety regulations, and the landing gears didn't close, but it drove well enough and got the two to Dexter's Diner, which was actually in a better part of the planet than where she lived, or where Charlie worked.

When they arrived, they got out and headed inside, Courtney stopped in the door way expecting for conversation o stop, but after a few seconds she remembered this was a respectable diner. _'I forgot this place doesn't stop when someone comes in.'_ she thought to herself. Courtney and Junior went and sat down at a booth as a waitress bot came to give them the menu. They both ordered and waited for their meals. Courtney listened in on a few conversations and was slightly unnerved by the complete lack of illegal conversation.

"Ok, so tell me something about yourself that I don't already know. Like, your favorite color, or what you enjoy doing, or where you grew up, or how you're so smart and can seemingly read minds," Junior said, all in one breath like normal.

"Why can't you go first?" Courtney replied jokingly.

"Ladies first, it's a gentleman's rule." Junior answered with feinted nonchalances.

"Fair enough," she said, "well, something about me is that… I… Hmm… My favorite color is orange." She said finally.

"Orange?" He asked surprised.

"Yes, what's so surprising?"

"Nothing, I just, kind of, thought that you were a pink or purple gal." he said honestly.

"Well I'd never turn down a good purple outfit, that's for sure; however, I still prefer the color orange, though not so much in clothing." She said. "Now it's your turn tell me something." She said.

"Ok, umm, in secondary school, I was a leading player in our Chin-Bret team." He said somewhat boastfully toward the end.

"Oh really?" Courtney said, her voice unimpressed, though she was surprised.

"Totally the truth." He said. "Yep, we made it to the finals a few times, never the championships though. Ok your turn again."

"Hmm, I have a brother." She said quickly.

"You do?" Junior exclaimed.

"Well, not a biological brother, but I've known him for as long as I can remember, and we're so close we might as well be, so we just started calling each other our sibling," Courtney explained.

"How come I've never heard of him until now?" he asked.

"I don't know. You never asked?" she replied, offering an excuse.

"Haha, very funny," he said without humor, though only in his voice, on his face a grin was plastered.

"Well you never did," she said smiling. "Seriously, though it has never come up on conversation before."

"Do you not like talking about him?" Junior asked slightly concerned.

"It's not that, he just very cynical towards other people, so if I go telling everyone about him and they all want to meet him they would probably be scared away by him."

"Hmm. Seems like an interesting fellow," Junior said filing the information away in his memory banks.

"You have no idea," Courtney said with a faraway look in her eye.

"What's his name?" Junior asked, startling Courtney from her memories of Charlie's "interesting" moments.

"Oh, sorry. His name is Charlie," Courtney answered proudly.

"Charlie, eh? I wouldn't mind meeting him someday," Junior said thoughtfully.

"But he'd mind meeting you," Courtney said absent-mindedly, not really meaning say the comment out loud.

"What do you mean by that?" Junior asked, somewhat worried by her comment.

"Oh nothing. Just, like I said, he's really cynical of people," She answered with inly half of the truth. "Your turn."

"Ok. Umm, hmm… let's see," he said thinking for a few seconds. "Well, my favorite color is a light blue, like the sky on a clear, spring day in the Senate district."

"Really? I can't say I've been to the Senate district. How often do you go to the Senate district?" Courtney asked, interested by his choice of metaphor.

"N-not too often," Junior replied quickly. "Just to sight see, and to look at the clear sky, the kind you can only get in that district." Courtney recognized that he was lying, but decided not to push the subject since it seemed to be a bad topic to dig deep in to. "Your turn," he continued trying to move the spotlight away from him and his embarrassment.

"Very well, I've never had a lunch like this before." She said.

"And what do you mean 'a lunch like this'?" Junior asked.

"As in a lunch with a friend, at least one other than Charlie." She said.

"You're saying you don't have any other friends?" He asked. She nodded in response. "I don't believe that. How could you not have tons of friends?"

"If I don't scare the person away with my mind reading abilities, then Charlie does." She explained sadly. "Or they realize hanging around me is too much trouble."

"So you admit it, it is mind reading!" Junior exclaimed humorously, causing Courtney to giggle I little. "And how would it be to much trouble hanging around you? I don't think that."

"Charlie." She said plainly.

"What about him?" Junior asked somewhat nervous, now imagining this Charlie fellow as a great big character who's over protective of his "sister" and her friendships.

"No, he's not overprotective; he just has a knack for getting in trouble he can't get himself out of. He doesn't like following rules. So I usually have to get him out of said trouble. And whoever is with me, well, normally find themselves in scary situations." She said simply.

"Stop with the mind reading would you? And I can deal with anything you throw at me." Junior replied playfully causing Courtney to smile.

"Thanks for the assurance," she said. "Alright, enough about me, your turn again." They went back and forth like that a few more times, even after their food arrived. Courtney learned, after a bit of pestering, that Junior came from some large, rich family and he was born right in the middle of eleven kids. He never enjoyed the pampered life when it meant he was overlooked, so he decided to move out and live independent of his family; however, he also didn't want to live on the ground level either, so he had left his family with enough to make sure he could make it. She told him about her interests, her favorite part of work, but she never end mentioned her past; mainly because she didn't know it herself still. Junior talked about how he enjoyed reading and writing a lot, and how he also knew how to use a blaster.

"You know how to use a blaster?" Courtney asked unconvinced.

"Yep, I'm no good with a rifle, but a pistol I can hit a target nine out of ten times; five of those nines where I was actually aiming." He said matter-of-fact.

"Right, and when have you ever shot a blaster before?" Courtney asked. "You do know it's illegal for a non military personal to own, let alone shoot, a blaster of any kind, right?"

"Well, ok, I might be a little rusty since I've not shot a blaster since it's been illegalized." He admitted. "But when it was still legal, there was a shooting range in walking distance from my apartment, so I bought a blaster and went there several times a week."

"Do you still have the blaster?" Courtney asked.

"Umm, I. Well…" he stuttered out.

"If it helps to put you at ease, I have a personal blaster at home," she whispered after moving in closer. "So?" She asked leaning back again, though she already knew what the answer was.

"Umm, yeah, I still have it." He said still a little hesitant.

"Cool, it's ok, your secrets safe with me." She said with a smile. After that they stopped their sharing session and ate their food, just chattering a little about unimportant things that neither remembered about later. Afterwards, Junior offered her a ride to the library, which she accepted after Junior insisted.

They arrived at around 3:30 in the afternoon. Junior let Courtney out, wished her well and headed off. Courtney waved as he left then turned around and headed into the library.

 **To whom it may concern:**

 **Thank you for reading this far. I've decided to do something different. What I normally do is write two chapters in a short time span and upload them together, but then I take, like, a month break before the next chapter is uploaded. Right now I have this and the next chapter done, but will not be uploading it til next week (and maybe the week after depending on how far along I can get with the next chapter).**

 **Feel free to follow, favorite, and review. Be critics. I'm sure my writing needs help.**

 **Thank you for reading.**

 **-TheGreatNate**


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

The library was pitifully small with only three shelves of holobooks, and very little other information storage devices. Ever since the Empire went through all libraries and destroying all information on anything the Empire didn't like, all of the libraries were now low on real, unbiased information. Even so, there was still plenty to learn at a library, one just had to keep an open mind and be aware that there's probably more to a subject then there is written down.

Courtney liked going to the library because it reminds her of a library she would go to often before the "first day". Why she would go there, or for what she could never remember, but she could remember the hundreds of shelves of holobooks, the many systems you could sit at and search things up at. There was always more to learn there. _'There's still stuff to learn here.'_ She reminded herself.

She went over to one of the few systems and sat down at it. On the screen was several search options: by categories, key words, etc. Courtney pressed on the 'categories' selection, causing it to divide into different options: food, species, planets, etc. She pressed on 'species'. It then divided into more options: search by… Species name, characteristics, eating habit, etc. She pressed 'search by characteristics'. A search bar opened up. Pressing the buttons on the holopad, she wrote out 'feline'. It pulled up several hundred species, most being nonsentient. Courtney fixed that by specifying sentient creatures only. Only about 20 species were left. Courtney looked at the overview of each species and found a species that sounded like what she was looking for. She got up and headed to the first shelf, looking for a holobook on the species. She found it and pulled it out. She put her hand on the top of it and it opened to read _The History and Lifestyle of the Cathar"_. Ignoring the ancient history, knowing it was probably inaccurate, she read about this species, the Cathars. They were a feline species, one of the few with manes, and natives of their home planet, Cathar, shared a strange accent. _'One mystery down.'_ Courtney thought to herself. _'Now I know what species Trijalla is, but how do I know her?'_ she continued reading, studying, and thinking but couldn't find anything else of use.

She got up to leave, realizing she would be figuring anything else out, and because it was getting late. It was 5:14 and Charlie should be off work and headed home at this time, and if she didn't show up, or contact him soon, he'd be getting worried about her, and he was know to do stupid things to try to protect her. She went to activate her com unit…

 _〰〰〰_ _14 minutes earlier_ _〰〰〰_

Charlie got done with his shift and the next person came to relieve him right on time. He went to the back entrance, left his apron, and went outside and back onto the street where he grabbed a taxi speeder. About five minutes into the ride home he noticed another taxi following his. Charlie possessed the acute sense of when he's actually in danger and when he's not. And he was in some sort of danger, though not life threatening, he sensed.

"Excuse me," he said to the driver who just looked at him through the mirror on the windshield. "Could I change destinations?"

"Sure." He said. "It might cost you more though."

"I can live with that." Charlie said pulling something out of his cargo pocket.

"Where to now?" The driver asked.

Charlie told the driver, and gave the directions to the new place as he pressed a button on the object he had pulled out of his pocket. Instantly it filled up with air to the shape of the top half of a generic, humanoid figure. Charlie leaned down, moved out of the way, then put the decoy back up where he just was, as he moved to the other seat and stayed down.

"So someone's after ya?" The driver asked nonchalantly.

"I believe there is," Charlie replied, calmly. "Not sure why, but I'd rather stay alive to find out rather than dying."

"Oh I could agree," the driver said still chill. "I'll still take you to your destination don't worry, you'll just have to pay me in cash that's all."

"Ok, understandable." Charlie said, while activating his hidden communicator. After about a minute, he got a reply: _"Hello?"_ Courtney's voice came through the mini-speaker in his ear.

"Hey babe," Charlie said, using the keyword to signal a dangerous situation and to talk in code, "where are you at?

" _The mall, doing some browsing"_ Courtney answered. _'She's not still at the mall. Browsing… searching, looking, finding, information gathering… maybe the library, or some cantina eavesdropping.'_ Charlie thought to himself, trying to decipher Courtney's message.

"That's cool. You're going over to your friend's house right?" Charlie replied, meaning for her to find somewhere to stay that's not their place.

" _No, I'm going over to my parent's for dinner, and then I'll head home so I might be a little later than usual,"_ was her response. _'Ok good, she got that.'_ Charlie thought relieved.

"That's alright. A friend of mine is coming over today anyways," Charlie said, meaning he was headed to a "friend's". "Are you going to see your friend before you head to your parent's?"

" _Probably not,"_ she said. _'She'll find someplace safe to stay, that's good,'_ Charlie said to himself.

"Well I have to go, stay safe."

" _Will do,"_ was her response before the line went dead. Several minutes later they got to the destination, a rundown neighborhood in one of the worst part of Coruscant. The other speeder was still following.

"Let me out here." Charlie said.

"Good luck," the driver said as he drove off. Charlie walked down to the end of the street, to a house made out of a cargo ship that could no longer fly. He walked up onto the porch to the front door, knocked, and waited. Out of the corner of his eye he could see the two Togrutas, from the diner earlier, sneaking behind him. _'So, they're the ones following me,'_ Charlie realized, _'I should've guessed.'_

The door opened in front of him as a Mon Calamari step out. He looked down at Charlie studying him. When no recognition showed in his face Charlie spoke up.

"It's me, Charlie," Charlie said.

"Really?" the Mon Calamari said. "You look different. Are you sure you're Charlie?"

"Yes, I'm sure I'm Charlie. And I can prove it, Pete Franks." Charlie said, giving the name the Mon Calamari had used when he and Courtney had first met him a long time ago.

"Well you're either Charlie, or you're his lovely sister. And since you seem very much male, I'll assume you're Charlie. Come in my boy." Pete said stepping aside to reveal a purple female Twi'lek lowering a blaster rifle. Charlie didn't know the Twi'lek, but he knew the procedure: had Pete said things differently, Charlie would have a hole right between his eyes, or right through his heart.

"Charlie, this is Sierra, she's taking care of me in my old age." He said introducing the Twi'lek. "Sierra, this is Charlie, I've known him since he was a little boy."

"Nice to meet you." Sierra said with a slight hint of an accent Charlie couldn't quite place.

"And to you," Charlie replied, then whispering to Pete, "What should I call you?"

"You can call me by my name," Pete said, "or call me Pete, I'll respond to either."

"Thank you, Telkonar." Charlie said

"So what you here for?" Telkonar asked.

"I need to borrow your speeder," Charlie said, "and I need to use your passageways."

"What kind of trouble are you in this time?" Telkonar asked.

"I'm not sure." Charlie said honestly. "This pair of Togrutas is following me and knows who I am. What they want or why, I have no idea."

"Well, my good speeder is being worked on, so all I have to offer is my old one, which is… well, you know how it is." Telkonar said.

"It'll have to do; I've just got to get home with it, without being tracked." Charlie said.

"Well, you know what, you can have it. It's yours." Telkonar said. "I was about to junk it anyway, so if you don't crash it, you can keep it, and if you do crash it, it's still your." He said laughing at his joke.

"And the tunnels?" Charlie asked.

"You've memorized most of the passages, so feel free, just don't reveal them." He said. "You need a blaster?"

"I've got one at the diner, and one at the apartment, but not one on me." Charlie said.

"Sierra, go get one of the blasters for our guest please." Telkonar said, Sierra then went up some spiral stairs to a second floor. "Follow me I'll take you to the speeder." Telkonar said heading to the back.

They entered a cargo area that was reestablished as a garage. There were several tables with random tools and parts of all kinds strung everywhere, including on the floor. There was space enough for three normal sized speeders, maybe five or six of the small, fast speeders, but there was only one parked at the time. It was a Kishh'tih model airspeeder, bulky and block looking, but capable of carrying four people: one pilot and three passengers. It was a mismatch of several different color metals: ranging from a dulled grayish-silver color to a vibrant orange, though there wasn't any sign of rust, which was a good thing.

"Here she is," Telkonar said gesturing to it.

"Thank you Telkonar," Charlie said.

"Don't mention it," he said, "seriously though, don't mention it to anyone, I'm getting old and people might think I expect to die soon I so I'm giving all my stuff away." He finished playfully. But Charlie understood his meaning; he really was reaching his last days, being almost 90 years old. Sierra came down carrying a belt with two blaster pistols in two holsters on it, and a short barreled caliber, plus extra rounds for each, as well as her blaster rifle she had earlier, and a second, short-barreled rifle.

"Thank you Sierra," Telkonar said grabbing the short barreled rifle, Suerea then handed the belt and caliber to Charlie and kept her rifle.

"I'm guessing you're expecting my followers to be a problem?" Charlie asked not worried for the duo.

"Hopefully not, but it normally hurts not being prepared." Telkonar said.

"That's true," Charlie said getting in the speeder. "You sure this thing still works?" he asked skeptically, looking at the dust and decaying seats.

"Of course it does," Telkonar said getting the keys from a toolbox on one of the counters, "most of the time." He finished tossing the keys to Charlie who caught them, still with a skeptical look.

"Have you done any repairs since last time it broke?" Charlie asked

"Of course, repaired it myself," Telkonar replied proudly.

"Uh-huh… I feel so much better know you repaired it," Charlie said doubtfully, putting the keys in place and pressing the button to start it up. After trying twice and hearing a sound like durasteel in a blender, the speeder came to life. Charlie did a quick check on the repulsor and engine; the engine being a very new, ion model. "You weren't about to get rid of this speeder anytime so were you?" Charlie asked Telkonar.

"Nonsense, the thing never works. It's far too much work to reinstall a brand new engine, find the correct exhaust tubes for this model, and replace almost all of the repulsors. Only a madman would go through the trouble," he replied smiling.

"Lucky for me, you are a madman," Charlie said smiling back.

"Now get out and stop bring trouble to my door," Telkonar said, replacing his smile with a scowl.

"Of course," Charlie said still smiling. Telkonar pressed a button on one of the million different consoles, a few seconds later a section of the floor in front of the speeder fell down like a ramp.

"You know," Telkonar said catching Charlie's attention before he left, "I never did name that blasted thing, how 'bout you do the honors?"

Charlie looked down at his new speeder. "People don't normally name their speeders you know." Telkonar just shrugged. " _Mischief_ " Charlie yelled back as the newly named _Mischief_ sped forward down the ramp into the underground tunnels under Telkonar's house.

"Interesting choice, don't you think?" Telkonar asked turning toward Sierra.

She just shrugged and said: "I would've named it _Trouble_ " heading back into the main living area, readying for a possible attack.

 **Hey guys and girls who have read this far. First, y'all must be weird to have read this far so congratulation, you're cool.**

 **Anyway, once again thank you for reading this far, feel free to leave a review, follow, or favorite the story if you like, it's all appreciated, even if the review is to tell me that my writing sucks, I'll live, and it will add to my review count.**

 **Another note: I have caught up to what I had written down before posting the prologue and school is still going on, and I'm still in school, and I'm trying to get a job, so all of that will equal less time to write. So expect chapters to be rather spaced out after this; between two to three weeks intervals, at the least one week intervals.**

 **So yeah, sorry if this A/N is a bit weird or isn't how I usually do things; I got four hours of sleep last night, five hours the night before and maybe sixish the night before that, so I'm a little sleep deprived. (It was worth it though; was playing D &D last night til 6;30 a.m. Totally worth it)**

 **That's all for today folks, bye!**

 **-TheGreatNate**


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

I'll take your money and give you some advice: leave him alone." He finished with speeding away before either could reply.

"Let's go," Viktor said. They followed Charlie trying to stay undetected. He walked up to an old, medium sized cargo spaceship that had been changed into a house. Charlie knocked and waited. _'I have a bad feeling about this'_ Viktor thought.

The door to the ship-turned-house opened up and Charlie said a few things, indiscernible because of the distance, to someone out of sight of the two Togrutas. After talking back and forth for about a minute, Charlie was let in and the door closed behind him with an audible lock, even from the two's position, a few meters away.

"You stay here and guard the front," Viktor whispered to Via, "and I'll scout the perimeter to see if there's a back door. This probably isn't where he normally stays, so that means he either was planning to come here before hand, or he's on to us; either way, he has to come out eventually so we need to know where he'll be exiting from."

"Understood, I'll call you on the secure channel if I see him," Via replied before he headed down the side of the property. Viktor made his way around to the back of the building, seeing what use to be the front of the old cargo ship, but there were no seeable exits, except through the reinforced cockpit view port: not likely. He continued around to the other side of the ship, staying several meters away from the ship, to avoid any possibly functional defense systems. There weren't any noticeable exits on this side either. There was, what appeared to be, the entrance to an escape pod launcher, but it seemed to be welded shut.

Viktor pulled out his electro binoculars and scanned the ship, switching to infrared, looking for escaping heat. Zooming in on the escape pod launcher, looking at the seams, it was indeed welded shut. He called Via over the secure coms to relay what he found.

" _Whatcha got?"_ Via's asked through the small speaker on his wrist.

"There are no available exits, unless he wants to try breaking the cockpit and jump almost four meters." Viktor replied.

" _You never know,"_ she said playfully. _"Wait… A light just came on,"_ she finished after a pause.

"What kind of light? Where?" Viktor asked, starting to make his way back to the front.

" _It's an outside light. It's not part of the original ship, it was definitely added afterwards. It's hanging right above the cargo bay doors."_ Via reported.

"Via…" Viktor started, but stopped, reconsidering if he should suggest what he was just about to.

" _It's okay Viktor, I can do it. Was planning to soon anyways, with or without you knowing or approving,"_ Via said, correctly guess what Viktor was going to say. _"I've told you, I've gotten much better control over it recently, and it doesn't hurt afterwards either. So don't worry,"_ she said cheerfully.

"Fine, but don't spent too much time doing it, understood?" he commanded.

" _Understood,"_ Via answered seriously before the com went silent. Viktor then continued making his way towards the front of the structure, seeing a pair of slightly glowing dots in the darkening evening when he arrived. _She had better not overdo it._ Viktor thought to himself.

" _Fine, but don't spent too much time doing it, understood?"_ Viktor's voice came from the wrist com Via was holding near her face.

"Understood," she spoke he single word response before turning the com off. She closed her eyes and waited for the familiar experience. Unknown to Viktor, she had been practicing her "gift" whenever she had a chance, and had become very good at activating it, and her practice became prevalent when she felt the ringing in her head. It was a strange feeling, accessing this part of her, many people say they sometimes hear a ringing in their head, but for Via, she would describe it more as a feeling sensation than a hearing sensation. Once the ringing was replaced with a low hum, Via opened her eyes to a different world than the one she closed her eyes to.

In this new world there was so much more that could be seen, and, without practice, all the information coming in would cause one's brain to hurt, but Via knew she had several minutes before her brain gets over run with information. She looked at the cargo bay doors, seeing small details, even at several meters away. After looking at it for several seconds, she learned the mechanics to the door: how it locks, how to open it, and things of that nature. She focused on looking past the door and her vision obeyed, allowing her to see through the door. She saw three humanoid figures standing by each other surrounded by several different speeders. One was definitely Charlie, the second was a Mon Calamari, and the third was a Twi'lek; however, they both just looked like grey shapes, with minimal details, in fact, everything in the room, just looked like different shades of grey with a dark background.

Charlie and the Mon Calamari were just talking to each other. Via couldn't hear anything, but assumed because they stood within the normal distance of conversing, facing each other, and sometimes made gestures with their hands. After a few minutes, Charlie jumped up onto one of the speeders and stood there examining it before turning toward the other two, one of which tossed a small object up to Charlie. A second later the speeder he was on started to hover a few feet off the ground and Charlie seemed to crouch down on it, probably to look around in it, and to the normal eye, from this perspective, he would be out of view, but Via could still distinguish his outline from the speeder's. After about a minute Charlie stood erect again and looked over to the Mon Calamari and seemed to be conversing with him again. The Mon Calamari, after several seconds, walked to the wall and seemed to press a button. A second later, a section of the floor lowered and Charlie, on the air speeder left through the new exit.

Via's mind processed all of this as it happened and as Charlie left she closed her eyes and concentrated on returning to her normal form of sight. After a few seconds, the low hum died down and she opened her eyes to see the world in her normal sight.

"Well?" Viktor asked from next to her.

"Charlie has just left," Via replied calmly

"What!" he exclaimed while still whispering. "How did he leave?"

"He left through some sort of tunnel system," she replied simply.

"Great. We've lost him," he sighed.

"Not quite. We can sneak in and follow him."

"How?" he asked doubting

"Just follow my lead," Via answered with a smirk. She snuck up to the cargo door and found the control panel that opened the door. "Give me a second," she said closing her eyes, preparing to activate her power once again.

"I don't think it's a good idea you do this again, this soon after," he said with concern.

"I'll be fine," she countered. "Now, when I open the door, head to one of the speeder bikes, the second one to the left, it has it's ignition chip with it; I'll head over to the control panel and open the hatch and then run over to it for you to pick me up at," she takes the console apart to override the lock, having activated her enhanced vision. "We have to do this quick; they'll probably hear the cargo doors open, and they have guns, big guns," she said finally unlocking the door and opening it.

"What?"

"Go!" Via ordered running over to the control strip she saw the Mon Calamari used to open the hatch in the floor. When she reached she smashed all of the buttons on the strip. Several lights turned off, something sounded like it powered up, and the same section of the floor opened. At the same time one of the engines started up and the sound of running feet could be heard in the metal passages to the right. Via ran over to the new exit and waited as Viktor rode the speeder over to let her on.

"Stop right there!" Via heard a male's voice say to the right.

"Step on it!" I shouted to Viktor who accelerated into the passage as I heard blaster fire right behind us.

We escaped into the tunnels and sped down as I followed Charlie's air speeder's ion particle trail that I could still see with my enhanced vision. Via wasn't sure how she knew, but her brain kept saying that Charlie was only about three quarters of a kilometer ahead of them, and that if they sped up slightly, they could reach him within about five minutes. Knowing this Via decided to let Viktor know as well.

"Hey!" she yelled to be heard over the sound of the wind rushing past. "If we speed up just a little, we can catch up to him in just a few minutes."

"Not sure how you know, but I believe you," he shouted back while accelerating a few more kph.

"That's good!" Via yelled when he reached an optimal speed. Slowly, the duo caught up to the old air speeder and killed the lights when they could see his rear lights and slowed down to the same speed as him, as to try and remain undetected. They continues on chasing him for several minutes until Via could see light coming from ahead of Charlie's air speeder.

"I think we're reaching the end of tunnel," Via shouted to her companion. Viktor sped up just a little more as the air speeder left the tunnel. The two Togrutas speed through the exit Charlie exited through only to find themselves falling back towards the ground from several hundred meters up.

 **Authors Notes: Hello my pretties! There will be no Chapter next week as I will be extremely busy. Also, sorry that this Chapter is shorter than the rest but I wanted to get this out before I got too busy.**

 **Yeah, Powers. Will be explained eventually, that's the mystery part. This story has had a surprising amount of views recently, though still no reviews** **. Anyway, please feel free to follow and/or favorite, and review if you so please.**

 **I'll probably be adding one of these on every chapter as of now so you can skip the last paragraph from now on, but *monotone voice* I do no own Star Wars or Disney in anyway, the only thing that is mine is the story idea and the original characters. Plz don't sue me. Thank you.**

 **Have a great day/night readers**

 **-TheGreatNate**


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

As the Togrutan duo fell from the exit toward the ground, several hundred meters down, Viktor used a few choice words that he would not use under different circumstances but found them appropriate in this case. Via chose to just scream. As they fell, the male Togrutan's survival instincts kicked in, and, with little grace, managed to tip the nose of the speeder bike at a near forty-five degree angle up and apply full power to rear thrusters and lower ion repulsers, giving them just enough lift to avoid a deadly encounter with the ground. Instead, they just landed really hard. _Really_ hard. The impact smashed the rear of the speeder in about half a meter, and caused Via to fall from the vehicle and land on her rear heavily. Viktor managed to remain on as the front end joined the rear in falling to the ground as the entire speeder slid for another few meters, the propulsion systems destroyed and no longer giving the machine lift. Viktor leaped off the speeder as a came to a stop and ran back to help his female companion to her feet.

They had crashed landed on a less populated walkway, but there were still several witnesses, several of which ran away screaming, others who ran forward to help and the rest just continued on ignoring the scene or stood still in shock.

"We should probably get out of here," Via said surveying the scene they had caused.

"You're right, let's go," he replied running off to avoid those who had moved to help them, Via following close behind. They ran for several minutes, just wanting to put distance between them and the sight of the accident, in case the Empire decided to set up a search party for the Togrutan duo that fled. When they stopped, they found themselves on a densely populated street, either on the ground, or only a few levels above, it becomes difficult to tell the closer to ground level one goes.

"Now… what?" Asked Via, gasping to catch her breath.

"Now we get something to eat and call it a day," Viktor answered still slightly winded. "Unless you can track him like you did last time."

"No, I'm not even going to try," the purple striped montral teen said sadly. "We're nowhere near where we last saw him, and besides, his ion signature would be mixed with others from other air-speeders anyway."

They walked into one of the several bars along the street; only catching a few glances, instead of suspicion silence like the last establishment they had visited. They sat an open end of the bar and ordered some food. The two togrutans ate in silence and a dreary mood.

They left after finishing their food, and hailed a speeder cab to take them to the Auburn Spaceport. Once they arrived and paid the driver they made their way to a docked YT-1250 freighter. The circular body with the cockpit and sensor boom centered to the starboard and port side respectively, and a single mandible protruding from the center of the ship. It looked similar to its successor, the YT-1300, only with one mandible as opposed to two, and a larger, side-mounted boom.

The two companions followed around to the starboard entrance and pressed a button of the control panel next to the closed ramp. After waiting a few seconds the ramp lowered to allow them passage. Once in, the ramp closed again behind them, as they made their way to the room just to the left of the entrance. The crew lounge. In one corner was a bench that looped around a dejarik board. In the opposite corner were a control panel and computer with a chair in front of it. Just to the left of the doorway stood a mini-kitchen area, with durasteel cabinets and counters, a stove and oven, an instant-heater, and a coolant storage unit. There was plenty space to move around in the room even with the three areas in the corners.

Viktor and Via went and sat in the booth around the game board and waited in silence. They remained like this for only a few seconds before another being entered the room. He was a human: tall and rather pale-skinned, but well-built with broad shoulders and beefy arm and legs. His face looked somewhat square, with a wide jaw and flat top haircut. His eyes were a dark brown, almost black, and his face had wrinkles that made it look like had was grimacing constantly. He stood around 6'6" tall and ducked when he entered the room, even though he didn't need to with the door ways in this ship being taller than most, but it had become a habit for him to duck when entering through a door.

"Well," his voice came out deep and soft like it always did. "I see y'all're back, and without company. I guess that lead was another dead end?"

"Actually it wasn't," Via exclaimed barely holding in her excitement to be able to tell him of their exciting adventure they went through that day. "We saw him, and we chased him a little too, but he got away in the end," she finished, her voice taking on a little of a depressed tone near the end.

"Is that so?" the older man asked. "You know that means it'll be harder to catch him next time: now that he knows what y'all look like, and that y'all are after him. He might even head off planet."

"Actually, I don't think he will, captain," Viktor spoke up, causing the other two in the room to turn their attention to him. "I don't think he remembers everything."

"Really? How are you so sure?" the "captain" asked the male togrutan.

"He doesn't act like he would if he did. He's unorganized. He didn't have a real plan set up in case something like this happened, he was just making stuff up as he went, at least he would have to have been, otherwise we wouldn't have gotten anywhere near as close to catching as we did." He explained to the other two in his calm voice.

"That is true," Via agreed after thinking about it for a second. "But maybe it's because of the new body of his. I still act differently than I sometime would before… you know… that happened, and I don't think I'll ever be the same as I was back then, maybe he's been effected more than I was."

"I don't think so Via," Viktor said having already thought of that possibility. "Having safety plans is one of his core principals, I don't believe even a new body would be able to remove, or even hinder something like that."

"Hmm, I guess you're right, he probably doesn't remember anything," Via agreed with her fellow togrutan.

"So," the deep voice of their third companion sounded, bringing their attention to his question. "What do you plan to do now?"

"I don't know. We don't know where he lives, or where Courtney _is_. Charlie's seen us which means we can't go back to where he works. You might have to visit _Gunda's Glory_ and see if Charlie's still on planet, we don't want him leaving and having a major head start. We could check out Courtney's work place, but no guarantee we'll find anything."

"Speaking of Courtney, I've got a tip on her," the captain said, peaking Viktor's interest. "Apparently, she was seen joining an ex rich kid I use to know at his place."

"That's good, we can use that" Viktor said thinking. "Ok, I have a plan…"

 **A/N. Hello my good people, I have good news and I have bad news. Which would y'all like to hear first? The bad news? Ok.**

 **I am, after this chapter, going to go back and edit and fix and rewrite all of the previous chapters. What do I mean by this? Well during these last several weeks of me not updating I have had time to really think this story through and make BIG plans for where it should go and I have decided that, from how the previous chapters are, a few things need changing in order to set it on the path to the great story I want it to be. So I will be working on fixing that. I have just graduated *small break* YAYYYYYYYYYYY YAAAAAYYYYYYY! HALELUIAH I'M OUT! *small break over*, so I should have more time to work on this. So that's the bad news. No "new" chapters for a little bit. I'm just going to change a few things, like a character's new, and some other stuff. :P**

 **So, on to the good news. Ahem. I'M NOT DEAD! Sorry it took forever for me to update but graduation has been a mountain looming over me for several weeks now and I have not been able to find time nor motivation to write til now so sorry to keep y'all waiting.**

 **That aside. I now have a job at the glorious story where everything is $1.07 so that will take away some time for my writing, but I'm out of school so I should be fine.**

 **Thank you all for reading, hope you will join me again for the edits of previous chapters and chapters to continue, when they get here. Please follow, favorite, and review. I even accept flames!**

 **Disclaimer: *monotone voice* I do not own Star Wars nor am I making any money off of this. I only own my OCs and any adventures they get to experience in the universe of Star Wars. Plz don't sue me *monotone voice ends*.**

 **Good bye now!**

 **-TheGreatNate**

 **(P.S. This chapter is short because there should be more to it, but in order for it to make sense you all would have to read the edited versions of the previous chapters.)**

 **(P.P.S. Y'all are gonna want to read the edited chapters because I completely change one character's name.)**


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